15 replies to this topic

[Heidi Kristin]

I am almost leery to post because I'm new, but after some searching, I haven't found a thread exactly like this. So here it goes:

Has anyone ever experienced unlikely, chance encounters with strangers that stood out. Perhaps you've met someone in passing and then saw them again, strangely, in a completely different location years later. Or you've met someone that, come to find out, is the same person your friend from Florida was telling you about on the phone a day earlier. Perhaps you see the same person in different places... What is your story?

My story:

I went road-tripping with a friend after high school, across the 50 states. A month into the trip, we were checking out San Francisco for the first time, seeing all these places we'd read about in favorite books. Upstairs at City Lights Book Shop, I was perusing through some Ginsberg and some clumsy guy next to me dropped a book and it landed on my foot. Annoyed that he was standing so close, I picked it up and shoved it at him. He apologized sheepishly and I moved away. I remember he had glasses and was fair-haired and sort of soft-looking.

That night, we parked our car at the park at the end of Ashbury and it was towed in the early morning. We ended up having to hoof it all the way across the city to get the car out of impound. It took us 45 minutes+ to make the walk and we ended up in a neighborhood no where near City Lights.

At a street crossing near the impound, my friend was tugging my arm so we could sprint across before the light changed and I accidentally rammed into a dude who was coming around the corner. I turned around to apologize and it was the same guy from City Lights. I can remember this look of shock on his face and then realization he said "Hey...wait!" But my friend yanked and I remember giving him a quick, apologetic look and rushing out of the way of traffic.

There was some feeling as we ran away that it was ok, that I'd meet him again anyway, so no need to fuss about a missed, lucky encounter. 15 years later, I still haven't met him again but the weird sense of...okay-ness is still there.

Maybe this is silly, but out of the whole city of San Francisco, at 6 in the morning, I almost knock down the same guy who dropped a book on my foot the day before, in a completely different part of the city. So weird!

Anyone have any similar experiences?

[soldier4death]

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I enjoyed your story and look forward to many others.

[Five]

Happens to me all the time. I started noticing it when I was 15 but if I have to guess, I would say that it had started way before that. I don't have an explanation for it either. Maybe it's destiny, maybe someone is keeping an eye on me. Don't know which idea is more unsettling.

[Ron Jeremy]

Recently, it happened to me twice. When I was an extra for the cable TV show Monk one day, I was driving to the set and the radio show announced that the day was the birthday of Tony Shalhoub. Well, the crew brought the birthday cake on the set and all the crew and the extras sang the song for him. Tony seemed to be genuinely grateful for that.

In other case, I was a featured extra for the movie Runaways, and Joan Jett was on the set. At the end of the day there was a music festival near the location and...the band was playing "I love rock'n roll". Joan made a big smile and flipped the fingers to everyone.

[Mark Mauvais]

To paraphrase an awesome quote I read once "In mathematics, when two shapes coincide it means they fit together perfectly. Coincidence doesn't mean random.. its when the variables all fit togther and 'coincide' it a coming togther of events"

Just thought I'd share that.

[Liquidburn]

Something that has happened to me several times over the last few years is when I am in a public place, I will see someone and think it's a friend of mine.  When They get closer I realize I was confused it's just a random stranger that looks like them.  

A few minutes later in the same location, I run into the actual friend.  That always strikes me as weird.

[Jello]

Over the summer I had a dream and one of the characters in my dream was this old man. He told me that there are no coincidences; if you knock into someone on the street it's for a complete reason. A few months later I was driving past the park when I saw this old man sitting on a bench. We held eye contact for the longest time till I was out of sight. I'm positive it was the same old man.

[ohio state buckeyes]

Heidi Kristin, on 30 October 2011 - 05:47 PM, said:

I am almost leery to post because I'm new, but after some searching, I haven't found a thread exactly like this. So here it goes:

Has anyone ever experienced unlikely, chance encounters with strangers that stood out. Perhaps you've met someone in passing and then saw them again, strangely, in a completely different location years later. Or you've met someone that, come to find out, is the same person your friend from Florida was telling you about on the phone a day earlier. Perhaps you see the same person in different places... What is your story?

My story:

I went road-tripping with a friend after high school, across the 50 states. A month into the trip, we were checking out San Francisco for the first time, seeing all these places we'd read about in favorite books. Upstairs at City Lights Book Shop, I was perusing through some Ginsberg and some clumsy guy next to me dropped a book and it landed on my foot. Annoyed that he was standing so close, I picked it up and shoved it at him. He apologized sheepishly and I moved away. I remember he had glasses and was fair-haired and sort of soft-looking.

That night, we parked our car at the park at the end of Ashbury and it was towed in the early morning. We ended up having to hoof it all the way across the city to get the car out of impound. It took us 45 minutes+ to make the walk and we ended up in a neighborhood no where near City Lights.

At a street crossing near the impound, my friend was tugging my arm so we could sprint across before the light changed and I accidentally rammed into a dude who was coming around the corner. I turned around to apologize and it was the same guy from City Lights. I can remember this look of shock on his face and then realization he said "Hey...wait!" But my friend yanked and I remember giving him a quick, apologetic look and rushing out of the way of traffic.

There was some feeling as we ran away that it was ok, that I'd meet him again anyway, so no need to fuss about a missed, lucky encounter. 15 years later, I still haven't met him again but the weird sense of...okay-ness is still there.

Maybe this is silly, but out of the whole city of San Francisco, at 6 in the morning, I almost knock down the same guy who dropped a book on my foot the day before, in a completely different part of the city. So weird!

Anyone have any similar experiences?

I've had that happen too. I was working out of town and would stop and get gas and this girl working there was  hot.   One day I stopped at  market I had never been to before and looked up and saw this same girl. She had just started working there. It was really weird cuz I had no clue she had gotten a new job.   I always worried she thought I was stalking her lol

[JustaDream]

i don't believe in coincidences. when this happens to me i just assume they are souls in my soul group from a past life in an extremely minor role this time around--their interaction isn't necessary for this life's mission or challenge, the minor encounter is a gentle reminder that we are in the same soul group. or?? stalking aliens attracted to my energy.....

Edited by JustaDream, 05 November 2011 - 11:42 PM.

[mattyt81]

Liquidburn, on 02 November 2011 - 02:45 PM, said:

Something that has happened to me several times over the last few years is when I am in a public place, I will see someone and think it's a friend of mine.  When They get closer I realize I was confused it's just a random stranger that looks like them.  

A few minutes later in the same location, I run into the actual friend.  That always strikes me as weird.

similar thing happened to me about a month ago. i was walking around in the city and thought i saw someone i knew. turned out not to be them once i got closer. then about 10 minutes later i run into the the actual person i thought it was

[Ninhursag]

It happens to me all the time .. But I live in a small town of 20,000

[synchronomy]

I posted this in another thread recently, I think it's related to the subject here:

A couple of years ago, I started thinking a lot about an old high school friend from 30 years ago. He moved out to California shortly after graduating and we lost touch...so I had no contact for at least 25 years.
I was thinking about him a lot and decided to look up his parents to see if they were still in town here. They were and still lived in the same house. Amazingly his Mother, now over 80, remembered me. She said, "What a coincidence that you have called today, John (my friend) is flying into town today from California. It's the first time he has been back in 15 years and his Father is dying of cancer"
Wow! I was dumbfounded at the coincidence (synchronicity?). I asked his Mom for the flight number and told her I would pick him up at the airport. It was equally overwhelming for him when he spotted me at the airport and I told him the story.
To me this was a mind-blower.

Another one. Recently, on another forum I frequent, a member posted in a favorite songs topic, that her favorite song was "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve.
At the exact moment I was reading her post, that song began to play on the radio station I was listening to...and I had not heard it in years!

[Chrlzs]

The Internet means that forums like this attract many, many like-minded people who wish to tell their stories...  Given the number of people on this planet and the average length of a person's lifetime, added to how much we now travel and how we communicate so extensively/widely, wouldn't it be even more remarkable if there *weren't* lots of 'coincidences' like these?

[taniwha]

Chrlzs, on 27 October 2012 - 09:51 PM, said:

The Internet means that forums like this attract many, many like-minded people who wish to tell their stories...  Given the number of people on this planet and the average length of a person's lifetime, added to how much we now travel and how we communicate so extensively/widely, wouldn't it be even more remarkable if there *weren't* lots of 'coincidences' like these?

.........Weird..... I was just thinking the exact same thing..... !

[Duncansmom]

I'm new Heidi but I have to answer your topic  -  and YES  I have had a meeting with a stranger that still makes me uneasy when I think about.  Part of this is personally uncomfortable  but here goes.

I was married and living in the outer suburbs of Detroit, Michigan  when I happened to come across a diary kept by my husband  detailing meetings and emotions from an ongoing affair.  It was not the first .... but it was the last.  I immediately contacted an attorney who was a friend of the family and told him I needed the help of an attorney.  He responded that having known both of us, he was uncomfortable representing me himself but that he would think of the most reputable he could and get back to me which he did.  He gave me the name of a of his friend who had previously been a law partner, phone and address.

Now I am not from Detroit and, in fact, had only lived there about 5 years.  Like most major cities, the city of Detroit has outer suburbs that are all named.  The closer in you get to the city, the older each of these suburbs is.  I made an appointment and forced my freeway ways into a suburb much older than mine probably just one layer out from the city.  I had never even been in that entire SECTION of the outskirts before!  How I found my way, I don't know how but I did. I  found the suburb, (which was about 20 miles from where I lived!) and made my way up to this attorney's office.

There I proceeded to tell him my story really just still screaming in rage -  Somewhere in the story, I mentioned the diary I had found and my husband's 'name and the other participant's name -  And the attorney stopped cold.    He himself was so shocked it blew his client "confidentiality"  AWAY.

His next words were Mame, I know your husband.  I know the woman.  He brought her to me to represent her  in her divorce. (Their meeting did not come through the attorney who gave me the recommendation  -  Not all.)  He had meet my husband during a union negotiation in downtown Detroit.   He went on to give up more details of her divorce.  He was so shocked he was a motor mouth - HA!   Guess what, to end all, he and I found his name and the appointment with my husband in the DIARY!

I was so shaken after that, I went directly to an Emergency Room and I will never forget the doctor I told the story to paled when I told him what had happened.  The doctor said to me, what you have described is impossible but I am a Christian.  You were directed there for a reason, hold on to that.

After all the years, I have resolved it, with the fact that I was supposed to know what I  interpreted from the darn diary was 100% correct.  I have always been at peace with the divorce.

Sorry to bend your ear but I never knew anyone else who had this type of chance, I recognize you, off the wall, meetings either.